True Mexican Salsa

County Fare17

by Diana Cercone

Nothing says summer like a freshly made salsa. That’s not to say that I don’t savor salsa come fall when the leaves shower us with their colors. Or in winter, when the cold winds blow and snow swirls, I find a spicy salsa a warming addition to my table. By spring, salsa’s almost like family—albeit a culinary cousin that needs no invitation. Whether it’s for a special celebration, a backyard barbecue or an impromptu get together with family or friends, I have yet to find someone who does not relish this marvelous mix of tomatoes, onions and peppers.

No surprise, then, salsa, which means sauce in Spanish, is the most popular condiment in the U.S.—far surpassing ketchup. But to call it a mere condiment borders on blasphemy in my book. It’s so much more. It’s as essential to Mexican and Latin American cuisine as paint is to an artist.

To get the classic Mexican take on salsas I headed to Plumsteadville to talk with Horacio Barroso, chef and co-owner of the popular El Mariachi restaurant. It was his uncle José Barroso, who owns the Mexican grocery store, La Rancherita, a few blocks up on Rt. 611 as well as one in Warrington, who persuaded him to open up the restaurant in February 2006 with Horacio as chef and the two as co-owners.

A handsome man with soft brown eyes, Horacio greets me and as he leads me to a table where we sit down to chat, tells me that his friends call him “H.” At the time his uncle proposed opening their restaurant, he says, he was working as a chef in an Italian restaurant in North Jersey. Many fine cooks in Italian restaurants are Latinos, he explains (as if I didn’t know this already). So before opening El Mariachi, he says, he enlisted his mother to not only help him design the menu but also to help refine his Mexican cooking skills.

His family, he says, is from Mexico City. Along with his younger brother Israel, Horacio has two sisters. “In our tradition,” he says, “the mother teaches the daughters how to cook, handing down their family recipes. But not in ours. My sisters had no interest in cooking. My mother needed to teach someone, so she picked me.” Adding with an endearing laugh, he says, “I was the girl she was supposed to teach.” And that was just fine with him, he says. “I love to cook and have a real feel for it.”

All of the menu items at El Mariachi as well as at his brother’s and his new restaurant, Burritos Grill, in New Hope and at their stall at the Stockton Market, are classic Mexico City fare, he says. The salsas and other dishes are time-honored family recipes, handed down from his grandmother to his mother and now to him.

Glancing over his mouth-watering menu, I count six different salsas: pico de gallo; salsa verde; roja, both mild and spicy; molé; chipotle and creamy chipotle. His most popular, he says, is the salsa verde. This is an ambrosial mixture of tomatillos, chilies, onions and cilantro. Pico de Gallo, which translates to “beak of the rooster” is also known as fresca salsa for it is made with freshly chopped tomatoes, jalapeño peppers, diced onions and salt. Traditional Mexican chipotle salsa is a mix of chipotle chiles, tomatoes, onions, peppers and salt. For his creamy chipotle, Horacio adds a splash or two of heavy cream. Then there’s his molé. For this, he uses seven different chiles: pasilla, poblano, chili ancho, guajillo, pulla, arbol, morita and costeño.

So what is his secret for making salsa, I ask. “My mother always says you have to know how to combine the right amount of each ingredient,” he answers. “Like a maestro conducting an orchestra,” he says, “you have to know how much of each to create a symphony of flavors.”

Ah, yes, there are one or two other things. But for them, he says, with a sweet, mischievous smile, “You have to be family.”

According to food writers James and Kay Salter, salsa originated with the ancient Aztecs, Mayans and Incas from tomatoes native to the land mixed with onion and other spices. Aztecs, wealthy enough to have meat and fish, served salsa as a side dish or condiment, while the rest of the population enjoyed this same savory mix with tortillas.

Noted New York chef and cookbook author Roberto Santibañez in his book Truly Mexican, writes, “From the silky smooth to the thick and chunky, salsas … are used to deliver an exhilarating bolt of flavor and a welcome dose of lip-tingling heat that takes even the most delicious dishes to new heights.”

Santibañez could easily have been writing about Horacio’s dishes as much as his own. One only needs to taste Horacio’s Puerco en Salsa Verde (pork in salsa verde with rice and beans) or Chimichangas (golden, deep-fried burrito filed with shredded beef or chicken, topped with your choice of salsa roja, salsa verde or molé) or the Flautas (four crispy rolls of corn tortillas filled with chicken, beef or cheese served on a bed of lettuce topped with Cotija, sour cream, pico de gallo and guacamole) among the other dishes offered at El Mariachi to understand what Santibañez means. (Should be noted that though the same wonderful salsas and some of the menu favorites of El Mariachi are on the menus at Burritos Grill and at the Stockton Market, each also brings another dimension to the Barroso brothers’ take on the flavors and foods of Mexico.)

Though you’ll find Horacio and Israel adhering to authentic foods of Mexico in their restaurants, Horacio confesses that he likes to mix things up sometimes at home.

There are so many wonderful things about America, he says. Ranking among them, he says, is the breath of its cuisines. Because this is a multi-cultural nation, he says, chefs can “try mixing a little of this and a little of that to create something new. It’s like a new discovery or invention.” Not to say it can replace the authentic cuisine of a country, he adds. “But when it works, it’s phenomenal.”

Take guacamole, for example, he says. “People add other ingredients, like tomatoes, lime juice and cilantro. It might taste good, but it’s not authentic Mexican guacamole.” The true Mexican guacamole only has four ingredients, he says: ripe avocados, jalapeño pepper, onion and salt.

And for true Mexican salsa and cuisine head to La Mariachi in Pipersville and Burritos Grill in New Hope. Both are BYOBs, and, if you bring tequila, they’ll be happy to make you Margaritas! Viva Mexico! Viva the Barroso Brothers!

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